


Alone and in a Circumstance

by middlemarch



Category: Anne of Green Gables (TV 1985) & Related Fandoms, Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery, Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Anne writes fic, Covid19 related, Doctors & Physicians, Domestic, F/M, Meta, Quarantine, Romance, and you know how she feels about adjectives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-03-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:48:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23318602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/middlemarch/pseuds/middlemarch
Summary: Anne had a key, so she let herself in, quiet as a mouse, arms laden with bags from the market. Her sophomore class's papers onA Tale of Two Citieswere poking out almost jauntily from the quilted bag Diana got her for her birthday.
Relationships: Diana Barry & Anne Shirley, Gilbert Blythe/Anne Shirley, Marilla Cuthbert & Anne Shirley
Comments: 81
Kudos: 108
Collections: Lock Down Fest





	1. Chapter 1

For all the world was ending, Gil’s apartment looked like it was an ordinary Thursday night; his cupboards were just as sad as they usually were by Thursday, when all that was left was muesli and a can of water chestnuts Anne would go to her grave without tasting. She put away the pasta, plum tomatoes, and uncorked the Sancerre, texting Marilla she’d see her on Sunday.

She found Gilbert asleep at the kitchen table, his curly head on his arms.

“Wake up, sleepyhead,” she said, kissing him.

“Shit, Anne, I’m in quarantine,” he muttered, exhausted.

“You mean we are.”


	2. Chapter 2

“So, you’re quarantined. All alone. Just the two of you,” Diana said, her face on the screen washed out. Maybe it was the lighting. Maybe it was the distance, knowing that it couldn’t be breached. “Remind me what’s so terrible about it? You’re always saying you don’t get enough time together because of his schedule, how fellowship will be worse.”

“It’s not romantic, Di. We’re not snuggled up on the sofa with the fire blazing,” Anne said, realizing how much she wished it as she spoke. “He was exposed, he locked himself in his room. We’re texting.”

“That _does_ suck.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Are you taking your temp?** Anne texted. She knew her students would mock her mercilessly for refusing to use standard abbreviations like R and u but she had standards and goddamit, she was keeping them, even if she was wearing Gil’s running shorts and her oversized wool sweater and it was not a look. And that was before you consider the socks and the braids.

_Yeah but doesn’t matter_ Gil wrote back.

_Don’t worry bretahing fine_

_Breathing_

_More worried about Moody & Jane_ he texted. 

**Can I make you forget?** Anne wrote. She didn’t mention her goofy knee socks.

_Try--_


	4. Chapter 4

They’d agreed to sit back-to-back with his bedroom door between them. It was cheap, hollow-core, not much of a sound barrier but Anne wasn’t sure if she was really hearing Gil’s breathing quicken as he read what she’d written.

“You okay?” she called. Maybe it had nothing to do with her fic, maybe he was getting sick and she was imagining him getting flushed for an entirely different reason. 

“Jesus, Anne. Or should I say SrslyShrly? That was…hot,” he said, sounding amused, impressed and yeah, aroused. He’d been so stressed since he woke up, she was relieved.

“Tell me more.”


	5. Chapter 5

Gil’s couch had was the one his parents gave him, the one from their rec room, a virtual coelacanth of a sofa; it seemed impervious to any damage, and equally to any attempt to make it anything more than sturdy. Gil insisted it made a good place to study, because you never got distracted by the TV awkwardly angled across the room, never found yourself taking an impromptu nap. The pillows she’d bunched up at one end, the duvet she’d layered over the tweedy upholstery weren’t making any difference. Anne lay there, wide awake, and tried, unsuccessfully, not to worry.


	6. Chapter 6

“Diana says the Pyes went ahead with their big family reunion, which ugh, can you imagine _that_ many Pyes together, and now Josie’s uncle Crispin and her granny Agatha both tested positive,” Anne said, poking at her salad. 

“People don’t get it. They don’t get they’re going to get it. Honestly, the Pyes would be the last people I’d expect to consider public health,” Gil answered.

“Marilla’s afraid to let Davy go run around outside,” Anne said. “But I think they’ll kill each other if she keeps him cooped up.”

“Green Gables is pretty remote. Fresh air makes good medicine.”


	7. Chapter 7

Anne had thought hearing about how Diana’s Girl Guide troop were all sewing masks for the medical staff at the hospital would cheer Gilbert up. She’d included every amusing detail Diana had mentioned in her description of the Great Avonlea Battle of Jerry vs. the Singer Sewing Machines. She’d talked about the search for elastic had almost come to a screeching halt until Mrs. Lynde donated some of her industrial strength brassieres. And she’d wondered aloud about thimbles, because it was such a funny word. She heard Gil’s phone ping, then a loud slam, cursing.

“Gil?”

“They intubated Moody today.”

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from Emily Dickinson.


End file.
